Across the Nation

Medicare’s prescription coverage gap is getting noticeably smaller and easier to manage this year for millions of older and disabled people with high drug costs.

The “doughnut hole,” an anxiety-inducing catch in an otherwise popular benefit, will shrink about 40 percent for those unlucky enough to land in it, according to new Medicare figures provided in response to a request from The Associated Press.

The average beneficiary who falls into the coverage gap would have spent $1,504 this year on prescriptions. But thanks to discounts and other provisions in President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law, that cost fell to $901, according to Medicare’s Office of the Actuary, which handles economic estimates.

50 percent discount that the law secured from pharmaceutical companies on brand name drugs yielded an average savings of $581. Medicare also picked up more of the cost of generic drugs, saving an additional $22.

MADISON, Wis.

Embattled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker may not face a recall vote until next summer, but he’s already campaigning to keep his job in the face of a major challenge by organized labor and the Democratic Party.

With petitions for a recall election now circulating, Walker is running television advertising defending his record during his first 11 months in office. Soon, Republican volunteers will begin going door to door, making phone calls and writing letters to the editor arguing that his most controversial initiative, which stripped public employee unions of most of their bargaining rights, was justified by the state’s fiscal problems.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The U.S. is planning its own investigation into NATO’s deadly airstrikes in Pakistan, while two senior lawmakers called for tough diplomacy after Islamabad turned away supply convoys into Afghanistan and demanded that the U.S. vacate a drone base.

Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the region, was expected by Monday to name an investigating officer to examine the incident.